Flock Together
by Dewey Decimatrix 822
Summary: After the fall of Trigon, everything should be perfect. That may be the case, but nightmares of the past plague Raven's dreams. Finding a way to deal with them leads her to late night training, but she's not always by herself.


_A/N: Good evening all. So this is a little bit of fluffy nonsense. I will absolutely admit to wanting to write some nice, sweet little stories. This may get a little bit more, but it may not. I have not yet decided. Still, thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoy._

Raven found herself walking through the halls of the tower in the pitch black. She kept a hand on one wall to guide her. After the defeat of Trigon, she thought everything would just snap back to normal, maybe even better than before. For the most part it did, but the nightmares that had plagued her from childhood hadn't waned. Trigon may have been defeated, but he still infested her dreams and tormented her sleep.

She made a few turns and took the stairs down until she found herself outside their training room. It was a path she took most nights in order to escape the horrors behind her eyelids. The room stood empty, as she expected it would at almost three in the morning. She entered, closing the door silently behind her. The lights flickered on automatically for her, the fluorescents blinding her momentarily after the pitch black walk. As she did most nights, she dragged a yoga mat to the center of the room, squaring it to the mirrored wall. As she sank into her first position, she felt calm wash over her. She allowed the nightmares to be pushed from her mind as she focused all her energy on her steady movements. She spent nearly an hour in silence, her movements precise and sure.

By the time she had finished her entire routine, it was nearly four in the morning. She put the yoga mat back and picked up on of the folded towels from a shelf on the far wall. She wiped her face.

"Couldn't sleep?"

Raven nearly jumped, whipping around to find Robin leaning against the doorway, arms crossed as usual. She did her best to recover smoothly. "N-no. What about you?"

He gave a slight shrug. "I usually get up early anyways," he said with a slight smile. He was dressed in a white tank top and track pants, unlike his usual costume.

"You're not in your costume."

"I know it may seem like it, but I do not sleep in that thing. Believe me, it is not comfortable enough to sleep in," he replied. He cleared his throat slightly. "Your flexibility has gotten a lot better. Have you been working on hand to hand combat?"

The empath's eyes widened slightly. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Not that long. Your last pose required almost a full split."

"I've been using yoga as meditation," she said softly.

"How long has this been going on?" he asked. His voice wasn't accusing, just concerned.

She bit her lip, rubbing the back of her neck and averting her eyes from his masked ones. "Since I came back," she muttered.

Robin leaned in, not hearing the soft utterance. "What?"

"Since Trigon," she snapped back.

"Raven," Robin breathed, loosening his usual hard stance. He walked towards her, touching her upper arms and doing his best to make eye contact with her. She jerked slightly, not used to a lot of physical contact. She had barely touched him since the large hug she had given him after he came to find her. Still, she was not used to anyone touching her. "Raven, I thought he was gone."

"He is…"

Robin could see the pain in her eyes. He pulled her into a hug, his strong arms enclosing her. "Why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell _me_?"

"It's not your problem," she said softly, her hand touching the back of his shoulder lightly.

The usually stoic titans stood like that for a few moments, not sure what else to do. "I'm sorry Rae…. Let me know if I can help in the future?" The empathy nodded. Robin sighed in relief. "Good."

Raven looked at her feet, shuffling her weight from foot to foot as she searched for the words she wanted to say. Every time she thought of something, she decided against it. Biting her lip, she looked up at him. "I'm going to try to get some sleep now," she said. Robin nodded.

"Next time, wake me up?" She nodded again. The two parted, Raven daring a glance back at him as she left the room. He seemed lost in thought, but she did not want to pry into his personal thoughts. Instead, she returned to her room in the dark and curled into her large bed, finding quiet sleep shortly after.

It was less than a week later when Raven found herself in the training room around two in the morning again. However, this time, she wasn't alone. Robin stood on a yoga mat beside her, following her routine as she moved gracefully from pose to pose. She enjoyed his presence more than being here herself. She found him calming, even though they had hardly shared any words since she had knocked on his bedroom door nearly half an hour before. They had walked silently down to the training room together, pulling out mats, and raven had played a relaxing mix of music to calm her rapidly panicking mind.

To Robin's credit, he didn't ask any questions or pry into what she needed. He merely went along, understanding the need for human companionship and someone to be nearby during stressful times.

The pair finished the routine, each layered with a slight sheen of sweat from some of the more strenuous positions. They each grabbed water from a table nearby and drank deeply before the two birds made eye contact. They gave light smiles before returning the bottles to the table.

"You have good form," Robin stated, mentally kicking himself for not coming up with something more interesting to say.

"Thank you. You're not too bad either."

"I think you shifted you're weight oddly on your tree pose, though. It might help your balance to practice it."

_Stupid, stupid,stupid._

"What do you mean?"

"You transfer your weight after you've lifted your leg, so you have to compensate after you've already entered the move. If you transfer the weight first, you shouldn't even have to push that leg off the ground." He moved back to his own yoga mat and demonstrated, showing the ease of which he transferred the weight and tucked his free leg's calf up against his thigh while resting that foot on the opposite thigh. He did so without the slightest stumble or wavering in his balance.

Raven moved back to her own yoga mat as Robin lowered his leg out of the pose. She fumbled with the movement once before she felt Robin's hands on her hips. "Shift to this side," he said, shifting her hip towards her stronger right leg. Her top half followed, allowing her bodyweight to be held on the one leg stably. She lifted her left leg with ease and tucked it into position with a slight smile. "Feel better?" Robin asked, letting her go.

"Much better. You're right," she replied, the light smile still gracing her thin lips. She sank back into her normal standing position and turned to her team leader. "One of these days I should let you teach me hand to hand combat, too," she joked.

"Don't tease. I still think you should. What if you can't muster your powers or if you can't…"

"I got it, Boy Wonder. I'll consider it."

She smiled and touched his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. She appreciated him, and all he did for her.

"So, other than the nightmares, how are you feeling?"

This was something they hadn't talked about since the last time they were here. During the day, she didn't talk about the nightmares and Robin knew better than to ask with anyone around. "I-I'm not sure," Raven started, rubbing her upper arm nervously. "It's been hard. I've been trying to practice letting out some emotions. It's gotten better, not having to suppress them quite as much, but it's a whole new experience for me. It gets a little overwhelming."

"But it's progress, right?"

"Yeah… it's definitely getting better. It's just an adjustment."

"I'm here for you, Rae," he said, tucking a lock of purple hair behind her ear. "Whatever you need, just ask."

Raven felt one of her emotions rise, her heartbeat increasing slightly. "Thank you, Robin." She hesitated for a moment before saying, "I should get back to bed."

"Yeah," Robin muttered, gazing intensely at her face from behind his ever present mask, "I should probably do that, too."

Neither seemed to move for a few moments, their eyes locked despite Raven not being able to see his, and not saying a word. Raven gained her senses back shortly after, flushing a light red as she realized how long she had been staring. "I, uh, I'm going to go up to bed," she repeated. It took her a moment to actually start moving towards the door, but she quickly turned back to peck the other's bird's cheek before rushing out the door, leaving him struck dumb.

She fell asleep with a small smile on her face, and, though she didn't know it, so did Robin.


End file.
